Laura Collett’s wheelbarrows choice

Laura Collett’s wheelbarrows choice

Choosing a wheelbarrow for a 1 or 2 horse yard may seem like a simple task – but when you’re a top British rider running a busy eventing yard, your wheelbarrows must be up to the job.

Young British eventer, Laura Collett, and her team were on the hunt for new wheelbarrows for their yard and stated they needed to be large, robust and durable to withstand the amount of work they’ll be put through. Whether hauling bags of feed to their place in the feed room, moving bales of bedding and hay or mucking out the many stables in her picturesque cottage style yard, there’s no place for a wheelbarrow that’ll let them down.

Laura Collett’s yard is in Lambourn, Berkshire. Lambourn is dubbed as the ‘Valley of the Racehorse’ with an amazing community revolving around the training of racehorses. It is the home of the IJF (Injured Jockey’s Fund) rehabilitation centre, equine hospital and many leading jockeys and trainers; their yards and gallops. Laura went for rehabilitation at the IJF’s Oaksey House after a rotational fall at Tweseldown (July 2013) left her with serious crush injuries and was placed in a induced coma for several days. The facilities, the area and community support showed their true value to Laura and have become particularly poignant ever since.

The gallops and land sprawling the stunning views across the valley are equally suited to the training and fitness requirements of top event horses as they are for racehorses and jockeys. Laura is privileged and grateful to be able to use National Hunt Champion trainer’s Nicky Hendersons private Seven Barrows gallops. Laura also says “the hacking is unreal. We don’t have to touch the roads and we can ride out over the downs, everywhere you go is a bridle path and the ground is unbelievable. It drains very well.”

Laura also has a 60 x 30m arena & a six-horse horse walker, giving her ideal facilities to train horses ready for the top events in the world resulting in a string of medals from Team Gold at the Pony Europeans in 2005 to Individual Gold at the World Championships in 2014.

Her country cottage style stone stables are set within a cosy yet impressive courtyard, where you are greeted by horses with their heads over stable doors. With 11 stables here and 9 stunning paddocks, durable wheelbarrows are in order. Their size, the height, the weight, the wheels, the way they turn, the way they tip, it was all under scrutiny before deciding to go ahead with Wheelbarrows Direct.

It’s important to us that all these factors matter to our clients because we’re passionate about our products and ensuring they deliver all the attributes that make your job easier. We did find it funny that Laura Collett’s team seemed to be so clued up about the differences in wheelbarrows and how much we agreed about the difference they can make to their use. It makes us all the more glad that they love their Wheelbarrows Direct wheelbarrows and Laura’s happy to put her name to them.